100 Days in Appalachia

‘In the Boat Together’: Post-Helene, Faith Communities Have Been Central to NC’s Long-Term Recovery

In the year since the storm devastated parts of western North Carolina, religious congregations have provided food, housing and supplies — as well as a shared sense of community.
100 Days in Appalachia

Hillbilly Horror: Reckoning With a Genre 15 Years After ‘Wrong Turn’

“You’re not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling? And that accent you’ve tried so desperately to shed: pure West Virginia. What is your father, dear? Is he a coal ...
100 Days in Appalachia

‘Harm Reduction Saves Lives’: Meet the Appalachians Doing the Work

Recovery from addiction is possible. For help, please call the free and confidential treatment referral hotline (1-800-662-HELP) or visit findtreatment.gov. The numbers are now frighteningly familiar: ...
100 Days in Appalachia

A ‘Fly on the Wall’: The West Virginian Who Chronicled State History for Five Administrations

Name a significant event in West Virginia over the last three decades. There’s a good chance Steven Rotsch was there. He was on the scene at two major mine disasters. He was front and center at seven ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Rural Tennessee is Losing More Hospitals Than Anywhere in the Country, But COVID-19 Isn’t Fully to Blame

This is the third story in Critical Condition, a three part series. Read more here. “I’m hopin’,” Andrea Haas says with conviction. The Remote Area Medical clinic has come to Jellico, Tennessee, in ...
100 Days in Appalachia

As Formerly Incarcerated People Return to Their Communities in W.Va., This Network of ‘Resource Brokers’ Is There to Guide Them

Amber Bjornsson says she had a “true heart change” while serving a two-year prison sentence for the years of fines and felonies she previously collected. Once her sentence was complete, Bjornsson ...
100 Days in Appalachia

In One Community, Faith-based Services Fill the Gaps When Government Can’t – or Won’t

On a Friday afternoon, the washers and dryers run nonstop at Bream Memorial Presbyterian Church, in Charleston, West Virginia. Three bright-white tiled shower rooms line one wall. MREs – Meals ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Study: Closure of Rural Harm Reduction Program ‘Fundamentally Changed’ Health of a City

That’s what a 40-year-old man told researchers from Johns Hopkins University about a now-closed syringe services program in the heart of central Appalachia. The Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Big Tech Comes to Tucker County, WV

Pamela Moe was reading the paper in late March when she spotted a public notice from a company she’d never heard of. Fundamental Data, a Virginia-based company, had applied for a permit from West ...
100 Days in Appalachia

For Tree-sitter, No Hiding from Heartbreak of Deal to Greenlight Mountain Valley Pipeline

BENT MOUNTAIN, Va. — Theresa “Red” Terry never wanted shades on the windows of her white clapboard farmhouse perched on the side of 2,600-foot Bent Mountain. Such coverings, she insisted, would only ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Holler, Y’all and Appalachian Drawls: My Childhood of Code Switching in Appalachia

When I was in elementary school, a teacher told me that I needed to speak “properly.” She said my twang made me sound unintelligent. When I began serving on a state leadership board for high school ...